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Have you ever heard of a Tapestry Hedge? I hadn’t, either, until I stumbled upon it recently while researching information about landscape screening with shrubs. Apparently, based on the various websites that popped up via a search through my second brain (Google), tapestry hedges are much more common in the UK and Canada. Lucky for us,…

I was looking through the July 2018 Better Homes & Gardens magazine and came across an article called Petal Power. The article features Sierra Steifman’s website, http://www.thefloralsociety.com, which offers flower-arranging kits, instructional videos, and related decor. The workshop-in-a-box kits come with everything you need to create your arrangement (besides the flowers and vessels). What a…

Polystyrene, also known as Plastic number 6, and commonly referred to as Styrofoam (in the same way some people refer to all tissues as Kleenex). Technically, Styrofoam is a Dow Chemical-trademarked name for Extruded Polystyrene used for building insulation and floral foam. So, the rest of the polystyrene family (CD cases, coffee cups, packing materials,…

Here is a good guide to help demystify the numbers you see in the “chasing arrows” recycling triangle on plastics: Smart Plastics Guide. Also, for my visual learners, see below, which I found in this informative blog post: What do Plastic Recycling Symbols Mean?.

I have written before about one of my favorite gardening shows to listen to, always hoping to find another to add to my list. While searching Stitcher for gardening podcasts one day a couple of months ago, I discovered a fellow NJ gardener, Mike the Gardener. Mike Podlesny primarily focuses on vegetable gardening, complete with a…

What is resiliency? Vocabulary.com defines it as “a quality in objects to hold or recover their shape, or in people to stay intact. This is a kind of strength.” According to Merriam-Webster, being resilient means that someone is able to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens. Likewise, resilient design is the design…

Right-sizing is a philosophy that I have been advocating for almost 20 years. I was introduced to the idea of not so big by Sarah Susanka‘s Not So Big House. I devoured that book. The concepts Sarah introduced spoke to me on so many levels (you can imagine how happy I was not just for…